The Importance of Communication

As a woman who may have a family that includes your husband and children things can be complicated enough some days. For many women, especially those who need to work outside of the home and raise a family at the same time, you can end up with a one-way ticket for many different issues to arise. With any type of relationship, one of the issues most often encountered is some type of lack of communication. This is something you want to get under control as soon as possible, especially if the communication difficulties are with your husband.

Having a good, open line of communication with your husband is important in order to prevent or eliminate any misunderstandings. While it’s normal for couples to sometimes disagree, or even argue, you’d be surprised to learn how many times these occasions are attributed to a simple case of miscommunication. With an established line of communication, chances are the number of arguments and fights you and your husband have will reduce. In many cases, simply working on your communication skills as a couple can be the key to keeping your relationship alive.

Many women find the most convenient time and place to talk to their husbands is at the dinner table. If you don’t eat meals together as a family, this could be the first thing you want to address. When you consider work schedules, school activities and other parts of your daily life are already wreaking havoc on the time you can spend together as a family it becomes very important to set aside some time together. Try and plan at least two meals a week where you and your husband have a standing “appointment” if you will, to eat together in order to have time to discuss the goings on of the family, financial issues, social engagements, or just simply talk about each other’s day. You may find your relationship will have an extra dose of strength added to it simply by making this one little change.

It’s also important to create a time to involve your children in the conversation, to check on how they’re doing, if they have any concerns or problems, or perhaps to plan a chunk of time to discuss more private things such as faith and teachings. The important thing is to make the time for this, even with busy schedules, different work hours, or overtime. Spending quality time not only with your husband, but with your children as well may seem impossible at times. It could even feel like a hopeless case, and be very discouraging. It doesn’t have to be that way. There’s always one way or another to work out a schedule.

At times when you can’t see each other face to face, writing notes, emails or telephone calls could just be the bit of contact you need. This can prove useful if one of you works shift-work, or for other reasons and occasions when you may not have the time to sit together. Assign a location for members of your family to “post” any important information they need to communicate with you. A bulletin board by the phone perhaps, where notes and reminders can be left for each other could resolve missed soccer games or doctor appointments. They could even supply some much-needed contact like a quick note saying “Thanks for…” or “I love you”.

Not only will this process of opening the lines of communication make things easier and more pleasant for you and your husband, it teaches your children the importance of communication from an early age. This is something they’ll thank you for not only as they grow up, but later in life when they can do the same for their own family.